APPENDIX 2
Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (PAC 00-01/167)
QUESTION 183 MINISTERIAL
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR
SPORT IN
EU COUNTRIES
This note provides further clarification about
the locus of sport within Government in other EU countries. The
evidence I gave is based on paragraph 199 of the Health Committee's
second Report "Public Health (HC 30) Session 2000-2001, page
lviii-lix. The table indicates that five nations (Ireland—Department
of Tourism Sport and Recreation, Italy—CONI, Greece—The
General Secretariat for Sport, Spain—Ministry of Education,
Culture and Sport, Denmark—Ministry of Cultural Affairs,
Ireland—Department of Tourism Sport and Education), have
sport within departments that have all or some of the responsibilities
of the Department of Culture Media and Sport.
According to the list, only two countries—the
Netherlands and Belgium—have accommodated sport within their
health ministries, and as I mentioned, it is more popular to place
sport within Departments which are also responsible for education
(Finland, Spain and Luxembourg). In fact I am advised that the
entry in the Europa Year Book is incorrect and that the Netherlands
is the only EU country where sport resides with the Health Ministry.
In the case of Belgium, there is no single Federal Government
Department with responsibility for sport. Instead, responsibility
for sport is shared between the three Belgian linguistic communities,
namely the French-, Flemish- and German-speaking Communities,
which fall under devolved government arrangements.
Within the UK, sport has in the past been at
times the responsibility of the Department for Education and Science
(DES, now DfEE) and the Department of the Environment (DoE now
DETR). When it was in DES, the Sport and Recreation Division had
a complement of only 18 civil servants compared with the current
total of 25 in DCMS.
During the time that sport has been a part of
DCMS (formerly DNH) we have seen an increase in funding for sport,
a higher profile in government for sport, a greater prominence
given to sport and physical education in schools, and more medals
at international competition.
|
